Police panel to meet to discuss chief's fate
Commission will gather today to determine future
OAKLAND >> Weeks after the city's new mayor placed Oakland police Chief LeRonne Armstrong on paid administrative leave, she has yet to decide whether he'll keep a job he's been vigorously and very publicly fighting to defend.
Mayor Sheng Thao could, however, leave that decision to others. A citizen body, the Oakland Police Commission, will meet today to discuss possible discipline of the chief, who is accused of failing to discipline officers for misconduct.
The biggest difference between these two scenarios? The nine-member commission would need to justify Armstrong's firing, while Thao has the power to do so without cause.
In past meetings, the commissioners have expressed frustration that they have not been swiftly provided documents that would reveal more about Armstrong's role in the misconduct scandal — evidence that Thao has promised the public will inform her next step.
Now some of those documents have been made public and could heavily influence whether or not Armstrong — who hired a crisis adviser and recruited support from influential public groups such as the Oakland NAACP — keeps his job.
Most problematic for Armstrong is the publishing by The Oaklandside of a confidential 57-page report by the San Francisco law firm Clarence, Dyer and Cohen that found the chief was “not credible” when he denied knowing the extent of wrongdoing by the officer at the center of the growing controversy. Armstrong was placed on leave last month shortly after the federal court judge overseeing the department released a summary of the firm's investigation.
The incident at the center of the report involves Sgt. Michael Chung, who had driven an OPD-issued vehicle in a 2021 hit-andrun with a parked car and about a year later fired his service weapon in a department elevator.
High-ranking officers, including former internal affairs Capt. Wilson Lau, covered up some of Chung's apparent violations and watered down the investigation presented to Armstrong, who signed off on the findings without reading them, according to the report.
Armstrong, the report found, said he was not involved in the internal affairs investigation into the elevator-gun incident, but his subordinates' testimony contradicted that account. They told the outside firm that the chief had received regular updates about the second internal affairs probe.
“Chief Armstrong's stated lack of awareness of the facts of the case lacks credibility as much as it suggests a lack of attention to the (internal affairs) process under his ultimate command,” the report states.
The Police Commission's Discipline Committee will meet at 8 p.m. Wednesday and have set an agenda item to discuss possible “Discipline/Dismissal/Release” of Armstrong.
First hired in 2021 after two decades as an Oakland police officer, Armstrong is the department's tenth chief since 2003.
Assistant Chief Darren Allison has filled in for Armstrong while he's been on leave, appearing with the mayor at a press event Tuesday where the two discussed strategies to combat crime.
Asked about Armstrong's job status, Thao said at the conference she had no updates on the city's own investigation into the chief.